The UN special rapporteur on the right to development, Surya Deva, accuses Vietnam of targeting human rights defenders after a spate of high-profile arrests, as five environmentalists have been jailed for tax evasion in the communist country since 2021, in what activists see as a campaign to silence them. "Within the existing political system of Vietnam, there is a scope to tolerate different views and dissent, because not everyone who is having a different view is trying to overthrow the party or the state," he says. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES